Kathmandu, May 16:

The Supreme Court today said that the Civil Service Act,1992 has automatically been activated, as the Civil Service Ordinance-2005, which had amended the Act, has ceased to remain in force.

Issuing a verdict, a division bench of Justices Bal Ram KC and Pawan Kumar Ojha said: “Since the Ordinance was not turned to an Act as per the provision of the 1990 Constitution — under which the Ordinance was promulgated — the 1992 Act comes into force automatically.”

King Gyanendra led Council of Ministers had promulgated the Ordinance amending the provisions in the Civil Service Act but the Ordinance lapsed last July, as it was not endorsed by the Parliament.

Observing that any Ordinance promulgated by the government must be endorsed by the Parliament to be an Act, the bench stated that since the Ordinance was not produced before the Parliament and was not endorsed by two-thirds majority of the House it does not exist as a legal provision.

The bench interpreted the provision issuing a certiorari order acing on separate writ petitions filed by engineer of the Water Induced Disaster Management Office, Kamal Prasad Sapkota, and overseer of Narayani Irrigation Management Office Shiva Chandra Chaudhary.

“Since the Ordinance does not exist, the 1992 Act comes into force,” the bench ruled. The office of the Civil Personnel Record had told Sapkota to take retirement on May 22 and Chaudhary on June 13 as per their dates of birth based on citizenship certificates under the Ordinance.

Claiming that the government had given them compulsory retirement activating the provision of the Ordinance, the petitioners had moved the apex court. They challenged that it was illegal to force them to take compulsory retirement based on the dates of birth of their citizenship certificates and they are entitled to enjoy facility as per the 1992, Act to take retirement next year based on the birth date mentioned in the seat roll while joining service.